Review: New Pokémon Games Blend Classic Monsters, Modern Gameplay

When Nintendo’s Pokémon videogames were taking the world by storm a decade ago, Pokémaniacs couldn’t wait for the sequels Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver.

The two games, identical aside from slight differences in the pocket monsters in them, blew away fans when they were released in 2000: The sequels boasted a much larger quest, better graphics, more Pokémon and a wealth of refinements to their predecessors’ collect-and-battle gameplay.

Nintendo’s latest Pokémon games for the Nintendo DS, Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver, are remakes of those decade-old classics. While there’s nothing revolutionary about the games, they’re easily the best in the long-running series, combining old-school nostalgia with revamped graphics, music and gameplay.

There’s also a new piece of hardware that makes the game a literal walk down memory lane: Each copy of HeartGold and SoulSilver comes with a Pokéwalker, a pedometerlike gadget. You can transfer one of your captured pocket monsters to the Pokéwalker, then carry it around with you. Each step you take makes your beastie grow stronger. The Pokéwalker also comes with mini-games you can play on its LCD screen to capture more monsters.

I grew up with Pokémon. I was in grade school when the first black-and-white Pokémon Game Boy titles came out, and I lived and breathed Pokémon thereafter. I had every single game in the series and would religiously wake up at 7 a.m. every Saturday to watch the cartoon. I slept on Pokémon sheets.

A decade later, the basic premise of Pokémon hasn’t really changed. You play as a small child who at the tender age of 10 is released into the world without any parental supervision whatsoever. Your mission is to travel the globe, catching and training all 493 of the pocket monsters, and competing to rise to the top of the Pokémon battle leagues.

Pokémon’s signature game design is still as addictive and enjoyable as it was 10 years ago. Training your team of six Pokémon and steadily becoming stronger throughout your journey provides a tangible sense of progression. The series’ biggest strength has always been its battle system, which also happens to be the facet that has seen the most growth throughout the franchise’s history.

Fundamentally, the battle system is an elaborate game of rock-paper-scissors. Each Pokémon falls into a general classification (fire, water, etc.) that carries with it a set of weaknesses and strengths. Successful players build a team consisting of diverse Pokémon that can exploit a wide array of enemy weaknesses, as well as cover the weaknesses of their teammates.

The Pokémon games hide deep strategy inside the colorful wrapping of child’s play. That’s not a bad thing. One of the greatest strengths of the series is that it’s easy to get into, and the cartoony shell helps facilitate that. The freedom allowed by the battle system is one of the series’ best qualities, and a major reason why the games’ appeal extends far beyond children and has fostered a sizable competitive community.

HeartGold and SoulSilver are no different, but they also boast the most complex and developed battle system in the series. Every game since the original has expanded the battle system with new Pokémon, tons of fresh moves and new elemental types. HeartGold and SoulSilver don’t change the battle system as drastically as their predecessors did, but they do improve the speed at which battles play out, which is a very welcome change. The rest of the tweaks are small, but do a great deal to balance out the game.

The new Pokéwalker gadget isn’t meant to be used as an alternative to in-game monster leveling — it takes too long for that — but there are some Pokémon that you can only catch by using it. If nothing else, the idea of making some progress in a game even when you’re not playing it is an interesting concept.

The original Gold and Silver are getting a bit long in the tooth, but a decade of extra gameplay polish makes HeartGold and SoulSilver extremely appealing. The games are next-gen nostalgia done right.

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